The day I took the oath
by the snow shadow
Summary: I am Sir Alastir Gwydion and this is the day I was given the choice to become so much more than a normal mortal and the day I gave my life away to the Imperium. This is the day I gave up ever seeing my home again for a new family.
1. Chapter 1

What can I tell you of my fate. Very much, I will assure you. This is the final journal and testament of Sir Alastir Gwydion, let it be known forever that I was a loyal man, only did what I had to for the Imperium, and that if this is being read I have given my life in service to it. I was employed in the service of Inquisitor Antonia Selendus, that woman for which I have great respect for and I will till the end of days as it approaches.

I first met her on the day that I turned thirty by normal Terran standard, or six on the world of my birth. I had no idea what our meeting would bring about and I could not be happier for that very reason. I remember that day as if it were still fresh in my memory.

The doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss and my jailers pushed me forward with a sharp thrust between my shoulder blades. The thrust was light as it was done more to get my attention and spur me on then it was to do harm. I though was under no false intentions to believe that they would not use force and much worse against me, if I tempted them.

Fortunatly, I did not have that intention. I knew well enough that even if I wished to run, there was no place for me to hide, let alone live.

As I shuffled forward I passed into a large rectangular room. I must admit, I found a great deal of comfort in it after passing from the tight corridors I was coming from and had made up most of my journey. It was illuminated by a series of psychically-sensitive crystals that rested atop staves running the length of the chamber. The walls were adorned with weapons both mundane and exotic, along with devices that I could not have even hazard a guess at the actual functions.

At the end of the hall, sat a woman behind an ebony desk. She wore a stylised over coat bleached the color of snow and laced with gold, over a metal cuirass embossed with an image of a two headed eagle surrounded by a pair of laurels.

Upon the wall rested a large and stylized letter I. It hung high above her head. It had a single eye in the center that seemed to follow us as we approached.

She sat there, lower body hidden behind her desk and her fingers twirling a mercy blade. She was looking at us, observing me with an interested eye. A pencil thin smirk slowly gliding across her face as I grew closer. Her desk was black as if made of obsidian. It was bare excluding a crystalline decanter, filled with an almost golden liquid, and two glasses.

She raised a hand and we stopped, in that moment I could feel her piercing amber eyes. I imagine I was quite the sight standing just under two meters tall, starved, and unnaturally pale from more days than I could recall under artificial light.

For a time we simply observed one another, speaking not a word and yet in that moment I felt as if she had gotten from me all that she wanted. I could feel an icy pain at the back of my head as she probed me for weakness.

Once she seemed perfectly satisfied with my resolve, she simply asked, in a voice both measured and noble, "and what is it that you want here?"

I did not know how to answer her at first. I had no desire to be here and so her question meant nothing to me. My silence though seemed to displease her.

"Come now," she sighed, brushing aside a strand of silver hair away from her face, "I was informed that you were taught low gothic and were quite articulate. It would be most unfortunate to find that I was misled."

"You were the one who brought me here..." I felt another sharp thrust of an elbow into my back. "My lady..." I said remembering how I was told to address her, before I had even arrived.

"So he can speak, but that is not what I asked. What is it that you desire, that you want, that which both your heart and mind wish for?

"I would wish to be free of these bindings, my lady, and if I could drink to settle my parchedness I would be appreciative."

She seemed to smile at that. While looking at my guards, she gave a dismissive wave as if to tell them to make it so. One of them drew a small handheld device from his side, bringing it up to my collar, before activating it. There was a moment of silence followed by mechanical spinning sound, a sound echoed by my shackles. A moment later I felt them all fall away.

I brought one of my newly freed hands up to my throat and lightly touched where the skin had been rubbed raw. Despite the pain, I could only feel relief. I might have still been a prisoner, but I did not look the part and was free to move as I desired. It was a gift.

She pushed forward the glass, the caramel colored liquor smelling so sweet. With a wave of her dainty hand, she offered it. I took up the glass wary of its contents, sniffing it gently, and yet nonetheless I took it. As I saw it, if they had wanted me dead they had been presented with a million opportunities before poison.

With a prayer to the golden sun, wherever it was, I took a sip. It was as sweet as it smelt. It went slowly down my throat as if it were made for me and me alone to drink. I took only a few sips, not wanting to waste it, as I never knew when I would get another chance to drink something so... Magnificent.

"That does not answer what I asked, but it is an improvement."

"Do you know why you are here... Gwydion is it?" She spoke my name with fluency of practice. Although I must admit it seemed off with her accent.

"Because I am a mutant, my lady." I simply repeated what I have been told time and time again.

"Because you are very special, and you took my interest some time ago."

I bit my lip, hoping my next words did not ruin my host's temper in giving me these pleasantries. "I do not know how to feel about that, if i was to be truthful."

"And why is that?" she asked with a raising eyebrow.

"Since I was dragged from my home, the only interest in me seems to be how I can be used."

"What if I told you I am interested in what you can become." She lean forward as if interested in hearing my response.

"And what is it that you believe I can become, My lady?"

"That would depend entirely on what you are willing to become." She mused at the decanter still resting on her desk, "What anyone has the skill to become is entirely their choice, most simply lack the will to achieve it by their own means."

"And how is it that I can do this, what is it that I would have to do?" I knew well enough that such things did not come without a price.

"First, you would have to become one of my acolytes." She spoke it so matter of factly I felt almost foolish as if I was meant to know it in the first place.

"I do not mean to offend but is this already decide it for me?"

"I have the authority to conscript anyone, today though I am willing to give you a choice. I will warn you though, this is not something given lightly to anyone." She began to pour herself a drink before stating, "take your time." She spoke confidently as if she knew my answer before even I did, though I still believe that this was just her nature.

And I did. I stood there, watching this finely dressed woman, and thinking of what I wanted and what I was being offered, even if what I knew was little at best.

while I did not know what I was truly being offered, at that very moment all I could see was that there was a possibility that I would not be living within the dark tunnels and cells that I had spent the past innumerable days within. Even if I was wrong, this woman was the first person who had bothered to ask me my own wishes since the day that the silent ones had come and dragged me from my home.

For the first time in years, I made a decision that was entirely of my own accord, "When may I begin?"

"Soon, but first," she rose from her sitting position and walked around her desk, full elegant frame visible to me. What really caught my eye though were the blade in pistol up on her hip, they were decorated but some instinct told me that their apperance made them no less deadly. "Welcome then Alastir Gwydion, I am Antonia Selendus. Your life now belongs to me." She raised high her glass and waited. When I clinked my own against hers, that was the day I joined the imperial inquisition.

* * *

I hoped you liked this, it was how I imagined my dark heresy character got into th inquistion. I just wanted to to a little adding to his back story as the campiagn he is in, he is working with many others (7 to be exact) all from different inquistors If you all like this, I shall add more.


	2. Chapter 2

I looked out over the great void, passed an abyss of darkness a verdant green cerulean blue Jewel that hung so precariously. The two colors twisted around each other as nature itself shifted the world around. I could see the corona of the atmosphere of the world and the distant lights that played at the poles. As I looked up on its clandestine surface, I felt a certain dolefulness beginning to weigh heavy on my heart. My home has not been so different, emerald beauty beyond imagining and dangerous to only those who dared disrespect it.

This byproduct of the universe's Beauty was known as Venis Prime. It has been kept in near-perfect condition thanks to technology is ancient beyond imagining. The machines shifted the world as if they were Gods themselves made manifest. The world like so many others though was not without its flaw, one which had to be eradicated. Pulled up by its roots and burned.

I stood a few hundred kilometers away in a dark room, illuminated only by the faint glow of astroglobes and the light of a million distant stars. A layer partially translucent plasteel allowed me to look out on the edges of space and my reflection made it as if a ghost of myself stood calmly in the void. It was one of the few times I had truly looked at myself since the day my soul was bound.

I looked pathetic and weak, my own mother and father would have barely recognized me let alone any in my tribe. My skin was pale as if a cold corpse though my body was covered in thousands of scars. I could remember getting them, though I wish I had not. My body, soul, and mind had been thrown into a pit of needles that tore at me so that I could be pure. That is what the told me atleast. My long hair have faded in color how much once vibrant gold to a muted yellow. Only the suns of my eyes still retained their color. I was doing my best to keep my mind off that fact, focusing my mind on the world below and the task ahead of me.

All that stood between me and the void was several inches of plasteel. Nothing though kept my mind from wandering into the void. I place my hand upon the plasteel and close my eyes and yet I saw them more then with them open. The song of a billions souls singing called to my ears and the flame of their passions warmed my flesh. It had a manner of easing my tensions.

I could not put my feelings of any world into words and in some ways I have never been able to even in these days and I feel as if I never will. It would have been the third time in my entire life I have to look down upon a planet and while this world could not compared to either Terra or my home there was a majesty about it. One could say it was simply the majesty of life, of creation. Of all that existed about us that had left me I should leave without words. I was scared, I knew to some degree what our arrival meant for both myself and those who lived below.

Nevertheless I could not await out arrival and descent. I had grown tired of the recycle here on this ship. Despite all claims of it being fresh and clean, it seemed with every breath to only grew more stale and yet it has this sore tasteful that was putrid.

A solitary figure approached me from behind, while his heavy footsteps and the metal soles of his boots had given them away I nevertheless I gave him a small nod of recognition as if I had not been aware that he was present until then. He return the gesture in kind. His name was Riley Woodwayne and he was clad in his usual attire. A beep blue and white long coat over a set flak armor painted a deep red in a camo. Upon the edge of his shoulder I could make out the icon of a lion. He had sharp features and jet black hair combed back tightly. He was fairly clean shaven, with sharp and chiseled features that gave him an air of nobility. He smiled as he looked to me. "Figured you'd rather find yourself in here again."

I drew my hand away from the plasteel and looked to my companion, in the dim lighting of the room you both of our faces were shadowed beyond most recognition. "Nerves, nothing more I assure you."

"Those have both killed and more men then could ever be counted." If Riley had been intent on conforting me I could not say that had been to much effect. As if reading my face he delivered a firm pat to my back and laughed. I found my self smirking some "Fret not, in all likelihood this is either brave, or asinine, recidivists who are using the myth of a beast to cover their tracks."

"Or perhaps it will be a simple mistake." The words sounded hollow and foolish even as I let them parse my lips and yet I hoped for them to be true. I had let a sort of fear into my thoughts, one of anxiety.

"The Imperium doesn't make mistakes when it comes to nobility. They are too valuable of commodities." Riley's words sounded bitter to my ear, though he was quick to regain his more light hearted nature. I must admit I know little about that man, he had once been part of the Imperial Guard. A fact that I did not hold against him as even in the short time I had grown to respect him.

I knew very little of the man, aside from the fact that he was another acolyte of our inquisitor. I had met him the first day on this ship, he had been assigned to train me how to use a gun. While there have been several small accidents during the process under his tutelage I became a decent enough shot. In hopes of changing the subject, I simply asked, " I am going to assume that..." I turned about from the glass.

"Our chatelaine sent me, yes." Riley had a manner of finishing what others were to just say, even without the gift like others such as myself. It was simply a trait that he had, to the annoyance of some. Or many, if I was to be truthful. "The others are already on their way to her office."

"Suppose that means I shall have to leave," I had figured that she would call us together sooner or later. It was no real surprise and yet I had hoped from some more time to my own affairs. "A pity."

"Come now we have important work to do." Riley reminded me, despite me being well aware, as he kept pace next to me. "The quicker we do it the quicker you can get back to watching stars." He was right, I suppose, but did not make me feel much better. We continued our way down the halls and twisting corridors that find the length of the ship. A rather large fast clipper known merely as the Incandescent Rose, the merchant ship having more of an esoteric name the standard dogmas the plaster imperial vessels. We moved with purpose though not haste as Riley made I'm sure I was amply aware of the situation, "we will be within a high orbit by the hour and she wishes us to make planetfall before the day is done. A way to keep the Nobles on their toes." He relayed only the relevant facts, only throwing in a jest every once in a while. I wonder even now if this was done to help my nerves, either way I was and still am grateful.

While the ship was not large by most imperial standards, the journey took the good portion of twenty minutes. In which time we had exhausted all matters of discussion, until managing to unite with the most faithful of our mistresses scribe. Cereno. A short man compared to most, I although towered over the scrivener. I had some interaction with the fellow before this moment, as he made sure that my living arrangements were comfortable to me. He joined us and soon enough the three of us had arrived within the stratagem chamber. A single granite table with a top black like Onyx but it was smooth glass.

Inquisitor Antonia stood at the back wall, gently twirling the same knife as I had seen from before. If she actually found in the amusement in the action was unclear by her face, which was solemn and shadowed. She was not the only one to occupy the chamber, another woman still probably waiting to the right of the desk. She seemed to be staring intently at the wall as the three of us filed into the room taking the front of the table. She never looked at it the three of us and yet preemptively nodded as if to acknowledge our existence.

"No one spoke as we waited for our lady to formally commence the meeting. I cannot say with certainty how long do you wait as she seemed to be entirely uncaring and yet at the same moment waiting for another.

The last to finally arrive was a figured that was clad in bloody crimson robes, and moved into the chamber with a slow and unnatural grace for a servant of the machine. I had asked Riley those robes had meant and at first in my horror thought that he was trying to pull a cruel ruse upon me, alas it was not the case. I kept a worried eye upon the figure as he slide into the room and to the left of the table. How they could understand the intricacies of the most Arcane technology was an entire matter of its own but I could not comprehend the idea that they would embedded it within his own skin by choice. How someone could trust such things so completely which were affecting their natural form seemed degenerative to the soul.

"The Inquisitor looked away from her plaything and over each of us for a solitary moment. "Now we can begin. Daedalus if you would do the honors?"

The figure in red said nothing as he stepped forward, placing his hand upon the glass countertop. It began to hum and glow incandescently.

* * *

Well the few people who did see my story seemed to like it. So I am changing this from just a one shot to a normal story. Just to given a history to my dark heresy character. I will try to make these semi-regular. Though I encourage all of you to check out my main works on Fictionpress, under this same name.

If any would like to watch the current campaign we are playing pm me.


End file.
